Share this:

Comments

Ah, there’s nothing quite like a grinning “crimpol” that’s made an unholy deal within the depths of corporate hell itself than Senator Max Baucus, a “Demoncrat” from Montana.

I’m resupplying a link that I’ve posted three times to this site concerning this arrogant Senator for a pro corporate medical agenda in AmeriKa.

Should we trust this man relative to the media who’s waxing poetically about a “bipartisanship” agreement…?

Bipartisanship sounds scary to me and hopefully to our readers too. It means both sides of the aisle have come to an agreement on how to screw “we the people” evermore so.

I think “NOT”…!

I urge viewers to view the supplied link and then to think, just think if there’s any redemption for this guy relative to our collective protections concerning bi-partisanship support. Truly scary, both about this arrogant Senator and anything he might be involved with indeed…!

Now is the time for single payer universal heath care in the United States of America. Currently, Americans pay more per capita for health care than citizens of any other country in the world, yet in health outcomes, we rank about 35th among all developed countries. These statistics contradict the myth being touted by the private health insurance industry that our health care system is excellent.

Employer provided health insurance is counterproductive to job growth because of the excessive cost burden put upon the business owner. Further, if you lose your job, you lose your health insurance and are forced to pay outrageous premiums at the time you can least afford them. The development and implementation of a national single payer healthcare system will promote job growth by removing the cost of healthcare burden from businesses.

Currently, there is no free market for health insurance, as the private health insurance industry claims this is. Employers decide which health insurance plan they’ll provide to their employees, usually based on their cost. There is no choice for the average American employee, and the policies offered to the employers, that are affordable, are continually costing more and offering less to the insured. Further, the health insurance industry forces the groups applying for health insurance into the smallest and most expensive insurance pools possible. This policy prohibits small employers from joining together to have access to more economical insurance rates, further eroding their changes for growth in this tight market.

The only way comprehensive, universal and cost-effective healthcare will be provided to every citizen in this country is through a single-payer system. That is just a simple reality. There is too much waste in our current private health care insurance industry, which currently has an estimated waste of about $400 billion to $500 billion a year in administrative costs, in billing, in CEO compensation, and in advertising. These things have nothing to do with providing healthcare and are for the sole purpose of industry profit.

Health care coverage is so expensive that the only cure will come from a major overhaul of how it is provided. The changes the insurance industry, along with their lobbyists and protectors (some of our elected officials) advocate, will not be a solution to our nation’s health care problems. This is merely keeping the status quo by an illusion of change. Health care should not be for profit because, by definition, the interests of the shareholder must take precedence over the interest of the customer (insured) to maintain profits. We need a public payer plan that will create a large national pool that is necessary to generate genuine competition to the current monopoly in the health insurance industry, and that will provide true large-scale buying power on our behalf with doctors, hospitals and the drug companies. By eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private, investor-owned insurance industry, along with the excessive paperwork imposed on physicians, hospitals and other providers, the public payer plan saves at least $400 billion annually, which is enough money to provide comprehensive and quality care to all.

A single-payer healthcare system squeezes out the waste that the private dysfunctional healthcare system has created. Only a small percentage of Americans judge private health insurance companies to be honest and trustworthy. Further, many Americans with private health insurance are still running up large debts, filing for personal bankruptcy, and even delaying or forgoing treatment because they can’t afford care. A study shows medical bills underlie 60 percent of all U.S. bankruptcies. Studies have found that almost 75 percent of voters want everyone to have a choice of a public health insurance plan, while only 15 percent want everyone to have private insurance.

We need to ask ourselves if our health care system should be based on the for-profit business model or a not-for-profit public financing system. Do we want our health care system to be for patients and their families or for corporate market stakeholders and their investors? As a basic human need, is healthcare a right or not? Are we a compassionate country who stands up together for each other and recognizes the strength in the common good, or are we a country filled with self-interested individuals who stand alone? We need to remember that America is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people; and we the people need to take an active role in the current debate in our government about affordable access to quality health care for every American.

You’re right in suggesting that there is no free-market in the healthcare business, but a single-payer system is the antithesis of a free-market system.

Let’s remember that it was the government that created this system back in the seventies. Before then health insurance was available for unexpected emergencies, not routine care and prescriptions.

The problem is that people don’t want to pay for it at all, be it from direct paycheck deductions or out-of-pocket. What we don’t realize is that we will pay for it anyway, and the government’s track record for waste, fraud, corruption and abuse should leave any thinking American with a feeling of utmost dread.

What’s being considered now is truly frightening for anyone that has the tiniest inkling of what it takes to be healthy. And this ain’t it.

What we fail to consider are the reasons why we are among the sickest people on the planet. It isn’t completely due to healthcare. It’s because we’re plain stupid and lazy.

Most of our food comes straight from a chemistry lab. The nastiest garbage on the planet. When we get the simplest of colds, its off to the doctor for more chemicals.

We have no idea how to take care of ourselves. We want everything handed to us. We don’t want to think for ourselves nor do we want to take any repsonsibility for our own well-being.

Overweight? Take a pill.

Got the sniffles? Take a pill.

Can’t sleep? Take a pill.

I personally pay six thousand dollars a year for healthcare and I haven’t been sick or been to the doctor in ten years. It’s there for emergencies, not routine healthcare. For that I rely on self-education and eating healthy.

But I’ll be damned if I’ll pay for the idiocy of others. We’ll never get a handle on healthcare unless we address the fundamentals of why we’re so unhealthy. And it ain’t the lack of health insurance. It’s the lack of knowledge.

Good post, Janice. Another point, requiring employers to provide health insurance for their employees makes American businesses less competive with foreign businesses, and costs jobs. It would be better to fund health insurance, at least partially, with a consumption tax, such as a value-added tax (VAT) as is done in other countries. This step would increase exports and reduce imports, and improve our balance of payments.